Earth's Extreme Life Forms Indicate Alien Beings, Study

There are some amazingly extreme life forms on earth, that could tell us what life is like in other parts of the universe, says the Washington State University planetary scientist, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, who recently published his findings of "The Physical, Chemical and Physiological Limits of Life" in Life.

For instance some species on earth tend to live for long months without water. Other species adapt in new ways. All these beings indicate that there may be life forms in other planets that could have adopted odd, unfamiliar adaptations to life.

In fact, though alien life forms pose huge questions to earthlings, NASA's discovery of 500 new planets near Lyra and Cygnus constellations in the Milky Way Galaxy may have helped us to get some answers to some questions, according to natureworldnews.

"If you don't explore the various options of what life may be like in the universe, you won't know what to look for when you go out to find it," Schulze-Makuch in a release.

In his research, Schulze-Makuch examines the extreme life forms in earth and its environment, as well as those of Mars and Titan, Saturn's moon, which will help us understand what it is like in other planets.

He gives the example of the bombardier beetle. On earth, this is a species that excretes an explosive mix of hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals that can help to protect it from predators. But "On other planets, under gravity conditions similar to those present on Mars, a bombardier beetle-like alien could excrete a similar reaction to propel itself as much as 300 meters into the air," Schulze-Makuch explained.

If life is indeed existing on Mars, then we need to adapt in a lot of ways, according to Schulze-Makuch's study: "First, organisms would need a way to get water in an environment that is akin to a drier and much colder version of Chile's Atacama Desert," Schulze-Makuch explained. "A possible adaptation would be to use a water-hydrogen peroxide mixture rather than water as an intracellular liquid."

However, life on Titan would be facing a "drastically colder temperature", due to its greater distance from the sun than the earth. On Titan, life would not be dependent on water or carbon dioxide. Perhaps there is a liquid hydrocarbon like methane or ethane, which conveniently make up a large portion of Titan's surface.

"On Earth, we have only scratched the surface of the physiological options various organisms have. But what we do know is astounding," Schulze-Makuch said in the release. "The possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe are even more staggering."